Eastern New Orleans senior citizens could use a place to lay their heads

Tommie Yarls has a kitchen table and chairs. That’s good, because
there’s no sofa or anywhere else to sit in his one-bedroom apartment at
Peace Lake Towers, a HUD-subsidized senior citizens complex at 9025
Chef Menteur Highway in eastern New Orleans. Yarls’ living room
furniture consists of suitcases and boxes lined up against the wall.

“I don’t have too many visitors,” said Yarls, who is 72. “If you don’t have it, you have to live without it.”

Lamont Jackson, 58, was homeless before he arrived last summer.

“Currently,
I have an air mattress in the bedroom,” Jackson said. “I don’t have
anything in the kitchen. I really wasn’t trying to accumulate a whole
lot, but I could use something in the bedroom. I’m looking for work.
Right now I’m just doing community service with a stipend from AARP.

“It would be nice to sit down at a dinner table,” Jackson said. “It would be nice to sleep in a bed.”

Another
neighbor, who didn’t want his name used, is 6 feet tall. He
still looks like the trucker he was before he retired. But he sleeps on a
mattress barely larger than a twin size.

“The Lord says
to help the less fortunate,” said Paul Mosley Sr., whose own small
quarters are neatly furnished with a sofa, loveseat and glass coffee
table topped with artificial flowers. Mosley has been on a campaign to
persuade businesses to donate serviceable beds, sofas and kitchen sets
to residents of the 130-unit complex who need them. He’s already an
expert at finding discarded second-hand items, which he matches with a
handwritten list of his neighbors and what they lack.

The
residents are also looking for amenities for the building’s common
areas, which are clean but nearly empty. When I visited recently, Frank Chapman, James Cannon and Jackson were making plans for a game of
cards around the single plastic table in the recreation area. They could
use exercise equipment, a computer, books for the little library, even
pictures, plants and games.

Senior citizens are known for making
do with what they have. But it would be nice if all the seniors at Peace
Lake had comfortable beds and chairs, at least. If you can help, call
Mosley at 504.319.7714.